


Who are you waiting for?

by aces_low



Series: Single Dad Luz and Master Toye [3]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Angst, Flirting, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Just Bros talking about Bro things...like crushes and hot wings, M/M, Texting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-11-12 12:03:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11161458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces_low/pseuds/aces_low
Summary: Companion pieces to Hello, My Old Heart





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a companion piece for Chapter 4 of Hello, My Old Heart. It takes place between the Wednesday after he asked Luz out and the Thursday when they saw each other at Taekwondo. So, while I think most of this will still make sense out of context, I don't know why you'd care if you aren't reading the real story. I just really needed to let Joe get his two cents in here too. It's been difficult having to keep him as restrained as I have.
> 
> I might be adding more companion pieces to go along with other chapters/moments from Joe's POV, they'll just be posted here as chapters if that does happen.
> 
> Title comes from The Thick and the Thin by Imaginary Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe talks to his buddies about his unfortunate afternoon.

The bar is never crowded on Wednesdays. Joe isn’t sure if it’s ever crowded, Wednesdays are the only days he comes here anymore. 

They’ve been coming to this bar since their early twenties - Bill, Babe, Malarkey and Joe - they used to go almost every night, now they just try to meet up on Wednesdays when they can.

The food isn’t great - Joe is convinced they just pour extra grease right on top of everything before sending it out – and their beer selection is limited, but it’s comfortable and Joe goes more for the company than anything else.

“I’m gettin’ a pitcher and a couple orders of wings, anyone want anything else?” Bill asks, sliding off the tall chair.

Malarkey looks up and over at the bar for a second then back over to Bill. “D’you think they have like a grilled chicken sandwich or something? I don’t know if I need to be eating my weight in hot wings.”

“You’re kiddin’ me, right?” Bill looks personally affronted at the mention of being in a bar eating un-fried chicken, un-smothered with spicy sauces.

Malarkey just shrugs, unconcerned with Bill’s judgement. “I get heartburn.”

“Christ, we’re old,” Bill laments, and Joe can’t help but chuckle at his distress.

“Speak for yourself,” Babe says, though when he goes to jump down from his chair he lands a little off and hisses at the strain on his ankle.

“It’s those old bones,” Joe teases and Babe just flips him off.

Malarkey, trying to get the conversation back on track, says, “look, just, if something looks a little healthier than the rest of the stuff, order it, please.”

Bill sneers but there seems to be some acquiescence in his mumbling as he pushes Babe in front of him to head to the bar.

“So, what’s wrong?” Malarkey asks, turning to him as soon as they can see Bill and Babe at the bar.

“What?” Joe doesn’t know how Malarkey always just seems to know when somethings off, he thought he’d been playing it pretty cool up until now, but he does appreciate how he always waits until they’re alone before getting Joe to talk.

“You’re bummed about something, what’s up?”

Joe sighs, knowing he’s just going to confide in Malarkey eventually anyway, he may as well just get it out now.

“You know that guy I told you about?”

“Uh?” Is Malarkey’s response, obviously trying to think of a guy Joe has told him about recently.

“The one that’s been kind of flirting with me lately, or…at least seems like he’s been,” Joe explains a little more.

“The one with the kid in your taekwondo class?”

Joe nods. “I... uh asked him out today.”

“No shit?” 

Joe just glares at him.

“I’m gonna guess that means he said no?” 

“Yeah, he said no. Said it wasn’t a good idea.”

“Ah, hell, I’m sorry, Joe. Maybe-“

“Oh, Malarkey’s apologizing to Joe for something, this’ll be good. What’d you do now, Malark?” Babe cuts in as he sets the pitcher he’s holding down on the table.

“I ordered you some onion rings. A vegetable. You’re welcome,” Bill tells Malarkey, setting four glasses down next to the pitcher.

Malarkey scowls.

“Now, Joe, tell us what Malarkey did,” Babe says, pouring beer into glasses for everyone.

“I didn’t do anything,” Malarkey argues, but then shoots Joe an apologetic grimace.

The grimace catches Bill’s attention though and he narrows his eyes. “Alright, what’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on, mind your business. You know you’re not actually an Italian grandmother, right?” Joe deflects before taking a drink of his beer.

“You watch your mouth. I can be whatever I wanna be. Now, out with it.”

Joe scrubs a hand across his face before resigning to tell everyone about his embarrassing rejection.

“So, there’s this guy that I met at one of my classes, and we go to the same gym. And…I showed him some boxing workouts today and then afterwards I asked him out.”

“Nice!” Babe reaches up to give Joe a high-five. 

Joe just glares at the hand before Babe slowly lowers it back down.

“Oh, right, this is a bad story. Sorry, man.”

Bill lets out a low whistle. “I never thought I’d see the day, Joe Toye finally rejected. What’d he even say?”

Joe shrugs. “He just said it probably wasn’t a good idea.”

“Ah, fuck that guy, what does he know anyway?”

“I’m gonna go get our food,” Malarkey says, jumping down and walking away before anyone can respond.

“No, it…he’s…it’s complicated. He’s got his kid to worry about and-“

“Wait, there’s a kid?” Bill asks.

“Oh, uh yeah the class I met him in is that taekwondo class I teach to kids. His daughters in that.”

“Hold on,” Babe cuts in before Bill, who’s opened his mouth to speak, can say anything. “Did I just hear you say that Joe’s never been turned down before?”

“You met this guy in a little tyke’s martial arts class and you’re wondering why he might not be into you?” Bill asks, ignoring Babe completely. “Buddy, did you ever consider that maybe you’re not his…uh type?”

Joe rolls his eyes. “Yeah, cause I just thought ‘ _ah, there’s a guy I’d like to fuck, I’m sure he’s not completely straight and taken_ ’, I wouldn’t have asked him out if I wasn’t pretty sure that he at least leaned more in my direction.”

“But he’s got a kid, I’d think that’d mess all of that up.”

“Can someone confirm or deny the claim that Joe has never been rejected before today?” Babe pipes up again and Joe just grimaces at him.

“Just…trust me, he was giving off a lot of ‘I’m not completely straight’ vibes,” Joe assures Bill.

“Ok, let’s say, for argument’s sake, the reason he turned you down isn’t because he’s just a straight guy with a kid trying to learn some new workout tips from the friendly trainer, why did he say no?”

“Who knows though, Bill? Maybe straight guys go for Joe, apparently _no one_ turns him down,” Babe says, throwing his hands in the air.

“Are you almost done with your tantrum?” Joe asks, finally acknowledging Babe and his weird obsession with Joe’s previous dating record.

“No! How are you almost 33 and have never been turned down?”

“I don’t know, I just haven’t. Why? Do you get rejected a lot?” Joe asks with a smirk, knowing full well just how many people Babe has approached and been told they’re not interested. 

It’s different though. Babe, when they were younger, would just see someone he thought was cute and would go talk to them. Joe only has asked someone out when he was already pretty sure they’d be interested. Not that he’s planning on sharing this fact with Babe, of course. 

Babe scowls but just goes back to drinking his beer.

“He said he just didn’t think it’d be a good idea, with his daughter and my being her teacher and all that,” Joe explains, finally going back to Bill’s question.

Bill frowns but doesn’t immediately respond to that, and after a few moments Malarkey returns with a couple baskets of hot wings, a basket of onion rings, and a grilled chicken sandwich.

Babe immediately digs into some wings while Bill glares at Malarkey for a full ten seconds. Malarkey, for his part, just happily eats away at his chicken sandwich paying no mind to Bill’s judgments.

They each talk a little about work and about their families as they eat, not going back to Joe’s afternoon until Bill has had his fill of wings and onion rings. He throws down his napkin and looks at Joe across the table.

“I think it’s for the best,” Bill says, seemingly out of the blue, causing Joe to just quirk an eyebrow up in question.

“How often does he have the kid, do you know?”

Joe sighs, realizing they’re back on this topic again. “I mean, I don’t know for sure, he hasn’t outright said it, but I think he always has her. I don’t think he only gets her once a week or something.”

Bill seems surprised by that for a moment before shrugging it off. “Well, then even more reason why I don’t think it’d work out between you and that guy. He’s got a kid. You don’t want to deal with that. You’ll never get to have the fun, carefree early relationship stuff, because everything in his life is gonna revolve around that kid.”

Joe shrugs. “I dunno, I don’t think it’d be so bad.”

“Oh, my god,” Malarkey starts. “You’re all smitten with his daughter too, aren’t you?”

“She’s a sweet kid,” he tries to reason with them, though he’s not sure ‘sweet’ is the best way to describe Helena. “I mean…it’s more that she’s just like a tiny fire cracker of an almost person, with more personality than some people three times her age. She-“ 

He cuts himself off when he realizes that all three of his friends are looking at him like he’s just grown a second head.

“What?”

“Oh, buddy, I didn’t realize how bad you had it for this guy,” Malarkey says, patting him on the arm but moving his hand back fast before Joe has a chance to grab it and break it.

He rolls his eyes. “Just because I don’t think his daughter is a tiny annoyance doesn’t mean I’m in love with the guy.”

Babe shrugs and Bill eyes him for long moment. 

“So, there’s no way for you to convince this guy that it wouldn’t be so terrible of an idea for you to go out?” Bill asks.

Joe shrugs. “When it comes to his daughter I don’t think he’s willing to be convinced. I don’t know, I’m sure dating when you’ve got a kid is hard, I’m not gonna hold it against him if it just seems too complicated for him.”

“You’re a better guy than me, Joe,” Bill tells him. “Ok, I’m gonna set you up with someone.”

“I don’t need to be set up,” Joe groans.

“No, no, it’s a guy from my work, I’ve been meaning to have you two meet, I think you’ll like him.”

“Seriously, Bill, I’m not hard up for a date right now.” 

Babe lets out a derisive snort, but a sharp glare from Joe keeps him from saying anything else about Joe’s dating successes.

“I just liked the guy,” Joe admits.

“I’m gonna set you up. It’ll be good,” Bill, ever the nosey grandmother of the group, says, blatantly ignoring Joe’s words.

But he thinks maybe a date with someone else will stop him from thinking about George Luz as often as he finds himself doing, and now that he knows nothing is ever going to happen between them it might be good to help him move on.

“Yeah, why not,” Joe finally yields somewhat unenthusiastically. “What do I got to lose? Probably won’t be a complete disaster.”

“That’s the spirit,” Malarkey says, holding his beer up in a salute.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe's side of the texts from Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was prompted to share a secret that Luz didn't know from this, and while almost everything has been revealed I still thought maybe having a look into Joe's thought process through all of this might be interesting.

Joe reads the text again to make sure it looks ok. He’s aiming for professional, but not overly formal. He’s aiming for normal and relaxed. He’s pretty sure he’s failing.

He hovers over the send button for a full minute before he finally hits it. He’s been struggling with texting George all day, and if he doesn’t do it now it’ll be too late and he’ll have to wait until tomorrow, which will probably just inconvenience George even more.

He feels like a grade-A creep for pulling up Helena’s information that they have filed away at the training center just to get a phone number – a phone number that George has expressly not given to him for personal reasons – but it’d be ruder to just not show up at the gym tomorrow than letting George know we won’t be able to make it. 

He decides he can even promise that he’ll delete this number if George seems uncomfortable with the fact that he’s texting him, but he reminds himself that they have a tenuous friendship and it’s really not like George to act like Joe is overstepping, despite the fact that he has and does still overstep their boundaries more than he ought to.

His phone chimes with a new text message and he picks it back up faster than he’d ever admit to anyone, only to feel a slight tinge of disappointment when he sees the text is from Eric.

Eric:  
 _Hey! You want to go out this weekend?_

Joe frowns. Eric isn’t pushy or constantly asking him out all the time, but the fact that he continues to ask Joe out on dates every now and then, despite Joe having only agreed to go on two of them, makes him feel bad.

Eric is a good guy. He’s attractive, smart, and maybe a little over-enthusiastic about rights for people with physical disabilities than Joe is used to. But his sister has an amputated arm, and the two times they’ve been together Eric had spoken passionately about disability rights. And while Joe doesn’t disagree with the sentiment, it’s not exactly the type of thing he’s that interested in discussing on dates. 

Despite all of that, Joe doesn’t understand why Eric is still interested in going out with him. He hasn’t been an asshole, but he definitely hasn’t been a particularly good date either. He’s had a hard time with the fact that he’s too caught up on someone else.

Before he can respond, and vaguely hint that he’s not interested, again, another text comes through.

George:  
 _Hey Joe! No problem I cant believe we never exchanged numbers, that was dumb of us!_

He realizes he’s smiling at his phone, and he’s once again glad that there is no one around him to see how ridiculous he is.

Another text from Eric comes in before he can say anything to George.

Eric:  
 _Maybe a movie?_

Joe sighs.

Eric:  
 _Your pick :)_

He feels like a dick when George’s text comes through and he immediately goes to read that instead.

George:  
 _Does this mean I get to take the day off working out??_

Joe’s smile widens even more.

He tries to give George options of what to do without him being there.

George:  
 _Are you saying I’m weak?_

He can’t help but laugh and roll his eyes, that’s definitely not what he’d been saying, but that’s too good of an opportunity for him to let slide.

Joe:  
 _Yes_

George:  
 _Im crushed joe I thought I’d been looking pretty good lately!!_

He doesn’t even think as he’s typing out his reply, he’s just in a good mood at their back and forth, enjoying how easy it is to just fall into a conversation with George. Which is why it doesn’t even occur to him to think before he presses send on his next text.

Joe:  
 _You’ve always looked good_

As soon as he’s sent it his stomach drops, realizing what he’s just said. He tries to think of ways to backtrack. He keeps typing out shit like ‘not that I think you look good’ – lie, and ‘I didn’t mean that in a suggestive way’ – the truth but stupid, and ‘I’m sorry, that was inappropriate’ – fucking embarrassing and just an acknowledgment that he’d definitely been hitting on him, again. He can’t believe he keeps doing this.

George hasn’t said anything either while Joe has been playing his write and delete game and he’s sure he’s made him feel uncomfortable by being so forward with him. He knows he needs to apologize, but before he can figure out how to do that a text finally comes in response.

George:  
 _Not as good at you ;)_

Joe nearly drops his phone. He feels a little like a teenager the way his stomach has clenched at just those simple words.

George is flirting with him. This isn’t just a random, vaguely dirty joke made at the expense of Joe holding the title of ‘Master’, this is overt flirting. 

His first impulse is to flirt back, keep the conversation going like this, the only problem is he’s never been verbose, and he’s even less skilled at writing his thoughts down. Flirting over text isn’t something he has any practice in. 

So, he moves on to the option of asking George out again. If he’s willing to flirt with him maybe he’s changed his mind. They’ve gotten to know each other a bit more in these last few weeks, maybe things have changed. 

But as he’s typing out another invitation for a date, whenever George wants, any day or time, he can’t help but think maybe not. Maybe this is just George’s default. If Joe asks him out again, based on one errant remark about him being good-looking, right after he’s used his position at the training center to access George’s information, he’ll look desperate and pushy, and like someone who can’t take a hint.

He’s never been like this before. He’s never had these kinds of doubts or fits of paranoia. He’s also never been hung up on someone who isn’t interested in him back.

The problem is he can’t quite tell with George. He knows that there is something between them, when George turned him down he hadn’t seemed completely weirded out by the question. From what he can tell, it’s mostly that George doesn’t think the two of them together would be good for Helena.

Joe wishes he could convince him otherwise, that he is willing to go as slow as George needs, and that he understands that Helena will always be the top priority and that he has no problems with that. 

In truth, all Joe really wants is the chance to be around them more. George and Helena Luz have dug their way into his psyche to the point that he pictures them in his home, thinks about what it would be like to cook dinner with George sitting at the island talking about his day and Helena attempting to help. He thinks about how his friends would adore Helena, and George would slip right in easily as if he’d always been there. When he sits alone on his couch at night, he can’t help but picture what it’d be like having them there, Helena asleep, curled up between them, and George making a joke or sarcastic comment about whatever show they’re watching.

It scares him, that he’s this far gone. He shouldn’t be thinking of any of these things. He hasn’t known George long enough to be feeling this way, he has no business wishing he could be a bigger part of Helena’s life than as just her teacher. He’s never been the type to indulge in fantasies like this before, making the scariest part of all of this the fact that he’s pretty sure it’s all real for him. It’s what he wants and he knows he shouldn’t. 

And he has no idea how to tell George any of this without it sounding exactly as crazy and over the line as it is. 

He shakes his head and deletes the rush of words he’s been attempting to write, trying to explain where his head is at, trying to ask George to just give him a chance to at least try to be a bigger part of their lives.

He deletes it all because George doesn’t need this, he doesn’t deserve Joe barging into his life like he has any right to do so. George is under no obligation to make Joe’s ridiculous fantasies a reality, and Helena definitely doesn’t deserve him trying to take a piece of their lives for himself.

So, instead of all the things he wants to say and promise, he writes out a different text.

Joe:  
 _I’ll see you Thursday_

He pulls up the ignored texts from Eric, and the sharp pain that has been steadily growing in his chest as he’s been struggling to find words for his feelings only gets worse at the thought of how he has treated Eric.

Eric is real and available, and interested. Eric is uncomplicated. Joe needs to be done trying to worm his way into George and Helena’s lives. He needs to move on.

He finally knows how to respond to Eric’s texts.

Joe:  
 _How about Saturday?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Also, just a reminder that Chapter 11 won't be out until Sunday night or Monday! <3


End file.
